Atrophy

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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The crown pretender disappeared into a dark mist like the coward she was, but a bit of black magic fuckery wasn’t going to stop the Leviathan. She dove into the haze, the world going quiet as her powerful jaws snapped into and shredded apart a sizable chunk of air. Now on all fours, the Leviathan roared in rage—although, due to the mist, nobody would hear the terrifying warcry. She lunged blindly forward, jaw snapping, claws slashing, as she emerged from the mist to see Claudette had been pushed to safety by Grace. It seemed the false queen had her own loyalist. Fine then, she’d lose her fucking head too. Spittle flying as she bellowed, the Leviathan rushed forward to make an example out of Grace and to show the rest of the stupid ass primates how quickly she could decapitate someone. Not a damn thing could stop her.

With the exception of Deus Motherfucking Ex Machina. Divine intervention swept in to protect Grace’s pretty little neck as the Leviathan barrelled into a wall of lightning. Her whole body spasmed and convulsed as she was electrocuted, a haunting scream ripping from the pit of the Leviathan’s soul as she crumpled to the ground. For a moment, the Leviathan was still; her eyes closed. Was it dead? No. It had only taken a brief journey to the afterlife to kick Zeus’s little bitch ass for daring to meddle in her affairs. The Leviathan’s eyes opened. It was enough to send the primates running. They were smarter than she had given them credit, although that still made them utter idiots.

An unending snarl rumbled from the Leviathan as the rain from her storm began to fall harder. The field was more mud than anything now, and the Leviathan struggled as it clawed its way back up to an upright position. Laying in the dirt was unfitting of a queen, even if she was the ruler of these fucking garbage bastards. Claudette was running, but the old gods wouldn’t protect her now. The Leviathan bolted forward with all of the speed of a drunken toddler wearing ankle weights and got about just as far as one before she was stopped. Something had a strong hold on her tail while something else was wrapping around her legs. She looked down. Roots? Even the Earth Goddess was against her. No. A pale imitation. Another goddamn pretender.

She would make them all kneel.

In one swift motion the Leviathan swiped downward and cut through the binds with ease, her claws shredding through the roots with more power than chainsaw. She did not stop there. Seeing Madison and still feeling her on her tail, her claw swipe followed through as she stepped in towards Madison and wrapped her tail around her waist. If Madison held on and her armor didn’t protect her then the stupid asshole would have her guts ripped out. Alternatively, if she let go to dodge then the Leviathan’s was ready to whip around the other way and smash her with a powerful tail bash that would definitely be felt through the armor. Either way, one thing was certain: the Leviathan was going to destroy Madison.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

Chapter 3 gon be thicc af.
You sure it's only 5 chapters and not 6? Lol.

@Utrax

Chapter 1 Opening Cutscene
Chapter 2 Tutorial Area
Chapter 3 100 hours of you see that mountain, the Coven can ruin it
Chapter 4 Final Dungeon
Chapter 5 DENS DLC

R E D U X .// 2047 //.

“Like I said,” chimed in Maysah. She flourished her hands out like she was presenting a brand new car as the Tower clarified his abilities. “He does exactly what he looks like he does.”

The look on Maysah’s face slipped from slight skepticism to pure bemusement as Peterson outlined their plan. Just drive right in. Sure, easy enough. Arbiter spoke for her as he called it a fucking stupid plan. She hid the hint of a smile behind her hand by taking a drink of water and pretending to wipe her lip. It was nice to know that Arbiter was at least smart enough to realize that this was absolutely stupid, although he was still dumb enough to go along with it. Then again, she hadn’t gotten up from her chair and hopped the waist-size fence that divided the street from the patio so how could she criticize his intellect?

“I have a question,” said Maysah, draping an arm over her seat. It was for Arbiter, not Peterson. “In general, how close must you be before you can wiggle your fingers and exert control over tech? Theoretically, couldn’t we use your power to shut down the seismic sensors and loop the cameras to give us an option that’s a little less gung-ho than walking in the front door and saying we know Janice.”

Her eyes darted over to Peterson, “By the way, is that even a real person who is actually working with us? Or are we risking having a suitably farcical moment where this whole none-plan blows up in our face when we inadvertently tell the Janice Park that we were sent by a Janice Park?”

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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Yes! Yes yes yes! Madison had figured it out. She was flying up, up, up and away, like Superman in a discount Halloween costume. If the others were smart they would run too, except why would they? She hadn’t warned them. The Coven had only seen the Leviathan once, and it had helped them. . Only Herik knew the full extent of her curse, and even then she found the Leviathan keeping her words back to make it nearly impossible to give him the full story. Surely he told them. Then why did she hear footsteps coming closer? Why were there voices near her? Oh no, one of them was touching her. She had to stop them, she had to warn them, she had to—

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—teach these dumb motherfuckers who really ran the GOTDAMN Coven.

Look at them, these wannabe ass witches running back and forth after a stick like a bunch of dumbass dogs. The things these lesser beings did to entertain themselves. Honestly, it was downright embarrassing that the Leviathan’s vessel had actually enjoyed playing their stupid little game. Sickening, really, but it was just another example of primate inferiority. The Leviathan easily could’ve won their fucking game without even lifting her tail, but why would it even bother? It didn’t care about such trivial things. It only cared that it won, and it was going after the ultimate prize: respect.

And what better way to get nitwitted primate/dog crossbreeds to respect their one true Queen then by making them shit their fucking pants? With another crack of thunder the sky opened up and began to rain. The rain fell through the black mist that had hidden the sun that was now sheltered behind storm clouds, because the Leviathan was so magnificent that even the sun knew to hide when she arrived. As if she had just been hit with a defibrillator, Vashti’s convulsing body jumped upright as a deafening roar ripped from her lips as her mouth split and revealed dozens of razor sharp teeth. Scales covered her entire body as muscles rippled underneath them. Claws split from her fingernails as a tail ripped through her pants.

The transformation took less than a second, which would precisely be enough time for those stupid bitches who had swarmed her like vultures to realize that they’d fucked up.

The Leviathan would make Madison pay for scuffing up its precious vessel. The Lizard Queen would see to it that the girl would be as extinct as the creatures whose bones now shielded her body, all of which thought they were at some point the apex predator and all of which were wrong—killed off by meteors, volcanos, and because it was a tad chilly for their weak little bodies and they had forgotten their jumpers. Boo who gives a fuck. A time traveller with a shotgun could kill a stupid dinosaur. Nothing could ever really kill the goddamn Leviathan.

Only she couldn’t fly. Flying was stupid. It was for assholes and cowards. Chickens. Cheep cheep cheep. The Leviathan could jump around all day and it wouldn’t reach Madison, and she didn’t have time for evolution to come around and give her wings. She had to get the stupid boneheaded bitch out of the sky, and she knew just how to do it because she was a fucking genius. Never had there been a smarter Leviathan. If the Leviathan wanted Madison on the ground, she just had to get a reason for her to come down. Fortunately, that reason had been idiotic enough to come up and touch the Leviathan’s vessel just moments ago. Even better, that reason was that damn primate pretender currently occupying the Lizard Queen’s rightful throne.

Now, a Queen could just go around chopping off heads and call it ruling, but the Leviathan wasn’t some simpleminded, bloodthirsty monster. What was the point in being Queen if there weren’t others to grovel on their hands and knees for you? They couldn’t grovel without fucking heads, just like they couldn’t do it without hands or knees either. What a good groveller didn’t need was anything below their knees, and what better groveller would there be to quickly turn the Coven to throwing themselves at the feet of their rightful ruler then the pretender? It was solid logic. The only thing a truly righteous and brilliant Queen could think up. The best fucking idea ever.

And with that ringing endorsement, the Leviathan launched itself at Claudette with her claws out and her mouth open, ready to devour the pretender’s gangly ass bitch legs.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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Goddamn did that look painful! Vashti had intended to knock Kara down, but she didn’t expect it to be that successful. She would’ve felt pretty bad for absolutely dunking on the poor girl if she wasn’t too focused on getting the big W. She hopped up to her feet, ignored the pain in her chest, and yoinked the flag right out of that creepy tree arm. With a victorious whoop, Vashti started booking it to their goal. Gosh, she couldn’t wait to see the look on their idiot, monkey-brained faces when she won the game for her team. Vashti decided she wouldn’t trashtalk after her glorious victory. After all, no words existed that could describe the superiority of the Lizard Queen and her minions over Madison’s dinosaur team of boneheads.

As she neared the goal she turned to stick her tongue out at the losers, deciding that it was totally okay to be a complete, unsportsmanlike tool before her glorious victory. The blown raspberry morphed into a sharp “Oh fuck!” as Vashti’s vision was filled by Madison, with her arms out, in full bone regalia, soaring through the air at her. Soon Vashti was also soaring through the air as the entirety of Jurassic Park slammed into her. Instantly, Vashti dropped the flag. It was gone from her hands and then gone from her mind as she crashed into the ground, the back of her skull cushioning the blow. Utterly dazed, Vashti tried to sit up only to find herself pinned under the weight of Madison and the Jaws. Winded by the hit, a silent scream was strangled to death in her throat as she felt the pain rush back to her Outsider scar like it was a fresh wound.

And then she felt something even worse. The all too familiar sensation like she was drowning began to overtake her as the thing inside swelled like a massive tidal wave to wash away any illusion of her control. Vashti tried to warn Madison, to scream at her, but all she managed to do was thrash about like a fish gasping for air. Everything started to go black as she began sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean of her subconscious.

Herik’s quarter!

If Vashti could focus, she could achieve Gnosis and stop the Leviathan from trading the bones on Madison’s outside with the ones on her inside. Vashti fought against the undertow so that she could keep control, her hands trying to slip into her pockets. However, Madison was not making it easy. Still, she managed to move them enough to feel the soft fabric and nothing else with her fingers. Shit. Vashti’s head drooped to the side as she looked towards the sidelines, searching for her jacket where she’d left the coin. Shit!

She looked back up at Madison. Vashti really hated her guts now, but the Leviathan wanted to kill her. She had to do something. Vashti inhaled deeply. If she could warn Madison, maybe the girl could get away. The Leviathan wasn’t as fast as her. She’d be safe. The others would be safe. Her vision blacked out, and then faded back in. She was still in control. She still had a chance.

“Madison...please,” said Vashti. Her voice was distant and empty, but her watering eyes were full of terror as she began to cry. “Please. I’m sorry. Please run.”

Quietly, in the distance, Vashti swore she heard thunder.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

Kara's final moments on this cruel earth, dramatised

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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The thunderclap of a palm smacking a forehead rumbled throughout the grove as Vashti watched Madison hammer throw two of her teammates like they were ragdolls. She began to lightly jog towards the flag, waiting for Claudette to call the game the moment Maya or Kara broke their necks upon botching their landings. She didn’t see them hit the dirt, because Emily beefed it right next to her. Vashti covered her mouth to stifle a surprised laugh, and then yelped as a lion and a fox nearly trampled her.

She glanced down at the glow around her feet and then back at her team. None of them were looking her way. So, it seemed like Mariah’s abstraction worked. Good. Maybe Emily wouldn’t notice how Vashti just left her in the dirt then. Sorry, but she had a flag to snag. She moved away just in time to accidentally dodge Grace’s lightning and just barely get her ears popped by Maya’s soundblast. She doubled her pace, which wasn’t all that fast. The girl wasn’t much of an athlete, or maybe the SPF one million sunblock Claudette had cast over the field was making her feel lethargic.

“Vashti, catch!”

Vashti snapped to attention and reached her arm out to oh fucking god where was the flag even going? She slapped her forehead so hard this time that she stunned herself, but then she quickly shook her frustration off. The problem with Mariah’s abstraction was that it worked both ways. It was the only justification Vashti could come with for Isla just handing the flag to the other team and fuCK THEY WERE GOING TO LOSE!

“ARGH!”

Vashti booked it towards Kara. A dull pain in her chest became sharp as her rapid motions aggravated her old, largely healed wound from the Outsider. She ignored it and forced herself forward. Her vision tunneled on Kara like she was a baby deer lapping up at the edge of her river just ready to get snatched up. Coming in from the side, Vashti hoped that Mariah’s abstraction would still keep her unnoticeable before it was too late for Kara to react. With a shout she went in for a slide tackle in an attempt to knock Kara to the ground. Once the girl was down, she’d wrench the flag from her weird tree arm and be off before the stupid primate even knew what fucking hit her.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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Vashti swatted at the mosquito as it landed on her neck and grumbled. How was she the one attracting all of the bugs when she hardly showed any skin? It was a sign, an omen of biblical proportions, that something bad was going to happen. Vashti made for certain that something apocalyptical went down...at least for the mosquitoes, as she released a sweet cloud of deet all around her from a spray can she’d found tucked amongst the junk kept in the compartment of Emily’s moped. Never had the bloodsuckers been dealt a more devastating defeat. Generations of pests were lost that day. She put the can back with Emily’s stuff and joined the rest of the girls with her head held high, for she was Vashti, Destroyer of—bzzt.

Fuck! She smacked the back of her neck, feeling more cursed than ever. The growing feeling of impending doom only hit heavier as Claudette drew out a flag. Their training was going to be an overly competitive and extremely risky game of capture the flag? Vashti swallowed the lump in her throat and chided herself for being stupid enough to think they were going to do some team-building, trustfall, corporate picnic-in-the-woods bullshit. Herik almost immediately asked her to join his team. If she wasn’t so terrified of what she might do if one rogue elbow hit her in the nose she would’ve been flattered, because she was clearly not going to be much of an asset.

“Thanks, dude, but I think I’m better fit to cheer from the sidelines. Rather not ruin another outfit,” said Vashti with a smile.

Vashti moved through the field as Mariah and Isla came to join the team she was abandoning. She felt like she was in a high school gym class once more on her way to tell the coach some lie to get out of running the mile. She knew that Herik wouldn’t force her to participate, but she felt like Claudette would be annoyed if she saw Vashti just standing around while everyone else was playing the silly game. Vashti knew she was already on Claudette’s shitlist, but surely their leader was smart enough to see that this was for the best? Vashti coughed to get Claudette’s attention as she took her position as the ref.

“Excuse me, but…”

And then Vashti saw it: Madison, leaning over to Maya, whispering, laughing, looking at Vashti. A chill of ice went down Vashti’s spine as she caught Madison glancing away from her. She didn’t need to hear what the other girl had said to know what was going on. High school again. A ragged breath escaped her mouth as Vashti’s serpentine eyes turned back towards Claudette. Vashti smiled a little tight lipped smile as she roughly shrugged off her black jacket and dumped it on the ground. She ripped off her headscarf and dropped it on top. Shedded of her old skin, Vashti rolled up the sleeves of her blouse and exposed her scales.

“Could you watch my shit?” she hissed, running back to Herik’s group before any affirmation.

She arrived just in time for Mariah to begin coming up with their game strategy. Vashti nodded her head as Mariah suggested she would be least likely to be noticed—hell, the other new girl had outright ignored her back at the beach house. She smiled a crooked grin at the idea of her being the one to take the flag and show up Madison.

“Boom bam,” echoed Vashti, complete with her own snaps that were not nearly as impressive as Mariah’s. “I love it. I fricking love it.” She felt a storm brewing inside of her as she glanced at the other team. Her eyes narrowed. She wanted nothing more than to win. Fuck, she wanted to win! She began to bounce on the balls of her feet to keep herself hyped, throwing a cocky grin towards Emily and Herik.

She slowed as Quinn approached their group, worried that the others had sent a spy to steal their super secret strats and stopped dead as the girl apologized for getting her name wrong. Much to Vashti’s surprise, she offered to join their squad. The girl was a summoner. There was nothing more distracting than a giant flying creature ripped straight from mythology. It’d make their plan impossible to fail. Vashti started bouncing again.

“Yes dude! Yes! You’re totally in!” she said, rolling her shoulders to get herself loose. Were the teams even balanced anymore? Who cares. She wasn't here for a fair fight. She was her to win some goddamn bragging rights.“Let’s fucking ruin these bitches.”

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

@silvermist1116There's a whole underground scene where people used sealed apparitions to d-d-d-d-duel.

@Atrophy Leviathan and Chompy must fight for superior reptile status.

@Utrax

True fight is between the Leviathan and Mariah for who's the true queen of the Coven.

Recollections: The Coven [COMPLETED]

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“Vaati?” repeated Vashti with a huff. It was nice for something she said to actually be agreed upon for once, and she thought that perhaps she was gaining some clout with the Coven. Then again, if she had any clout then Quinn would’ve known her name. Vashti was still a bottom tier witch bitch. She was pretty sure Chompy outranked her. She squinted at the “familiar” sunning by the pool before visibly wincing. Imagine being jealous of an alligator. God, where’d she go wrong?

Right. Meeting a stranger on the Internet to learn magic. That’s where she’d gone wrong.

"... Maybe she doesn't want to kill all of us," Emily started, "Maybe Izzy stumbled upon something she shouldn't have... or knowing her, she was having an affair with Liao and she iced Izzy before it could be made public."

“That’s!” Vashti pointed her finger at Emily as if she were about to object, but then dropped it. She tilted her head as she rubbed her chin. “Possible. I mean, the idea that anyone in DENS was screwing around with any of us is just ridiculous but Izzy could’ve learned something she shouldn’t have.”.

The flash of a grin was covered by her hand, but Vashti couldn’t mask the twinkle in her eye. Izzy’s death could end up being a full-blown conspiracy. How many of Annabelle’s victims were truly government inside jobs to take out enemies of the police state? Perhaps another girl in the Coven had ratted her out. DENS seemed pretty damn capable of finding them. Then again, they wouldn’t really need a mole when they could just track their phones. They should throw all of their cells on a Greyhound bus to New York just in case. Go off the grid, get new identities, move to Cuba, and—Vashti shook her head and returned to reality.

"... I found a lead on Babylon."

Vashti cocked an eyebrow that quickly warped into a look of disgust as Emily elaborated on her unquestionably worse half. Plus, who was Molly? Had a member of the Coven died before Vashti had joined? Vashti frowned as she thought of the potential body count. She was about to voice her concern when Lyss powered through her hangover and spoke up. Normally, Vashti would’ve been all about a cult created monster ripping and tearing its way through Florida, but being somehow involved in all of the carnage made it less fun.

Claudette suggested the Coven train. While perhaps a terrific idea for a majority of the girls, it was the last thing in the world Vashti wanted. After all, her ability wasn’t really the kind she could finely hone. She’d much rather they just focus on finding someone who could remove curses. Her hand was the first to shoot up after Claudette asked if there were any concerns.

At least, Vashti had thought it was. Instead, it stayed firmly glued to the windowsill, biting deeply into the wood. She found herself unable to open her mouth, her tongue pushing against her sealed lips like she was trying to unlodge a piece of meat stuck between her teeth. Perhaps the Leviathan wanted to go to the wood, although Vashti could not tell why. She closed her eyes and listened to her heartbeat. It would be okay. The Leviathan seemed to fear Lyss; her presence would keep it in check.

When she reconnected with reality one of the new girls was speaking. Wait, new girl? Vashti did a double take, her eyebrows jumping as Mariah snapped her fan open. Reflexively, she found herself straightening up as if Mariah had caught her gawking. She looked away so fast that she heard a pop coming from her neck. Her eyes slowly crept back as Mariah continued to talk, her sheltered mind and her conservative, religious upbringing slowly fading away as the girl introduced herself. Vashti smiled at her. It was nice that they had new members. It meant she now wasn’t the only one underneath the fucking alligator.

“Nice to meet you. I like your fan. I’m”—she glanced at Quinn as Maya tore into her and took a few steps forward to block yet another classic Coven meltdown—“Vashti. I’d like to say that our meetings aren’t always like this.” Typically, they went much worse, but there was still time for a bunch of sea creatures to break down the door or a nosy neighbor to call the cops. “I’m sure Claudette was just about to introduce the two of you.”

If she had meant it as a biting remark to question Claudette’s leadership, Vashti managed to keep the venom hidden. She turned to Kara, “No need to be so shy. We’re not as bad as we seem.” Worse, actually, yet Vashti still managed to keep the car salesman smile. “What’s your name?”